Karmic Consequences

Is there a karmic consequence involved in the eating of fermented foods (yogurt, cheese, wine, vinegar,etc.) and what are their effects upon the soul?

Hilarion: the foods that are placed in the human body have various effects on the three bodies (physical, astral and aetheric) and in some rare instances an effect at the soul or higher self level is also experienced. However, there is no particular consequence beyond that of the natural cause and effect mechanism which operates at all levels of the physical worlds.

Let us explain this more fully. Some readers have not fully understood by what is meant by the word, "karma." They believe still that some entity or judge on a high throne looks down in a disapproving manner whenever some transgression of "God's Laws" takes place and assigns a packet of "Karma" to the guilty individual Nothing of the kind takes place. We have tried repeatedly in our books to emphasize the fact that karma is an automatic process which arises from any act - whether positive, negative or neutral. The result of all one's past actions are carried about in the form of a vibrational "charge," within the various bodies of the individual and the accumulation of this karma is a perfectly natural process inherent in reality.

If a person carries out some positive act of help or charity or love toward another, then the result is a quantity of positive vibration which enters into the make-up of the individual at some level and always remains. It is in this manner that "light" is collected in the soul. The light is simply the accumulation of positive actions which have been aligned with the loving and creative forces.

By the same token. a person can accumulate negative vibrations or negative karma through the carrying out of harmful actions and the bringing of pain to any other creature that has emanated from God-whether this pain is physical, emotional or mental. 

Now, were it not for a special decision that was made at the beginning of the great process of manifestation, such negative vibrations or karma would accumulate endlessly, ultimately dooming many souls to being blocked or stopped on their path, never reaching beyond a certain point. The load of negative vibration which they carried would simply not allow the degree of purification and lightness necessary to permit the seeker to reach the highest levels on the mountain of spiritual progess. The decision was to allow any entity to discharge the negative vibrations or karma-by passing through the same form of pain as has been meted out to another entity in order to acquire the karma.

To return now to the original question, it will perhaps be realized that the only consequence of eating any form of food is that arising from the natural cause and effect mechanism (which is another expression for the law of karma) Thus, a person who drinks excessively will ultimately damage his physical body because of the effect of the alcohol. He will also do great damage to the astral body. These are natural effects arising from the cause, namely excessive drinking. In a very real sense, that is the karmic consequence. Whenever any doubt arises about a particular foodstuff, or about or about the best form of a given foodstuff, the selection is almost always best when the most natural form of the foodstuff is taken.